If we don't fix deer problem, it will increase

Your report about the discussion of deer at Tuesday's neighborhood association meeting highlighted the damage done to residents' gardens. This is typical, but unfortunate. We need a more sophisticated understanding.

Arguably, damage to tulips and arborvitae is a trivial problem, and perhaps not warranting a systematic response. However, garden damage is just a symptom of a bigger, potentially devastating problem yet to come - or as the DEC representative put it, the ''tip of the iceberg.'' If deer overpopulation is not addressed early, it only gets worse - much, much worse, as has happened in communities where solutions were not pursued. It gets very bad for the environment, ruining an ecosystem that supports not only deer, but a range of wildlife (even in a city). And, most alarming, it gets very bad for the deer, who suffer all sorts of pain and torture from attempting to survive in overcrowded, under-resourced conditions. While some aspects of ''deer management'' might seem a bit draconian, it turns out that failing to manage deer populations is even more extreme. People who think it's cruel to ''cull'' surplus deer need to learn that it's even more cruel not to ''cull'' and otherwise manage. We're sending overcrowded deer into a hell of our making, and it's our job to fix it.